Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/685011
34 www.resourceworld.com J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 1 6 miNiNg Ioannis (Yannis) Tsitos, President and Director of Goldsource Mines Inc. [GXS- TSXV; GXSFF-OTCBB; G5M-FSE] recently guided his company to build and place into production the Eagle Mountain gold mine in Guyana, South America without the help of a senior partner. On March 7, the company reported its first gold pour. Tsitos, a physicist-geophysicist, spent 19 years with the BHP Billiton group and has worked in South Africa, Ecuador, Greece and United Kingdom, and has been working in Canada since 2000. He has been instrumental in the identification, negotiation and execution of more than 50 exploration agreements with juniors, majors, as well as with state exploration and mining companies. Tsitos has also been part of two discovery teams with BHP Billiton in porphyry-copper and nickel-sulphide deposits. In an interview, Yannis Tsitos shared his thoughts on the challenges for junior min- ers building and operating a mine without the help of a senior miner. RESOURCE WORLD: What kind of min- ing projects would be suitable candidates for a junior company to build a mining operation? YANNIS TSITOS: There are many types of commodities and mining jurisdictions as well as many different methods of devel- oping mining projects to advance them from an exploration project to financing the development of an operating mine. Different commodities require different criteria and the same applies for various jurisdictions. In my career, I have seen junior com- panies build mines, sell their companies or joint venture their projects with major corporations to build more complicated mines. It all has to do with risk as you go from exploration to development and the availability of capital. Precious metal mines are sometimes eas- ier to build as one doesn't need the huge amount of capital required to build, say, a major porphyry copper mine. As well, precious metal mines often have a shorter time line to build. RW: Building and operating a mine requires different skill sets than exploring for minerals. What advice would you give junior companies wanting to build and run a mine with regards to their talent pool? YT: Management is everything. You need a good project but you also need a good staff. A good project can be devel- oped with good management. Even an average project can become a huge opera- tion with good management. A good project with bad management can be destroyed. Sometimes I see Canadian junior com- panies operating in remote or foreign jurisdictions such as South America or Africa. In these cases, it is important to understand the local environment and all stakeholders ranging from the government down to the local community, environ- mental groups and so on. You need to complement your man- agement with the right operating team – meaning both local and expatriate employees in the right combination. RW: What was your basic plan for building the Eagle Mountain Mine? YT: We had recognized the value of the Eagle Mountain asset from all the drilling Explorer to Producer How a junior company can build a gold mine by Ellsworth Dickson Ioannis (Yannis) Tsitos, President and Director of Goldsource Mines Inc.